Many vehicles presently include vehicle telematics units capable of carrying out wireless communications to and from the vehicle. These communications include both voice calls as well as calls that carry data. Wireless carrier systems can enable the vehicle telematics units to communicate when the units register with base stations operated by the wireless carrier system. And when the vehicle telematics units register, an initialization or handshake process occurs during which time the wireless carrier system can verify that a vehicle telematics unit or other wireless device is authorized to communicate using the wireless carrier system. Sometimes the initialization process can generate error codes that place the vehicle telematics unit in an invalid state or lockout state rendering the unit unable to communicate. Removing vehicle telematics units from this state can be challenging.